An Optimization Model to Investigate Transit Equity Between Original and Relocated Areas in Urban Revitalization Projects
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An Optimization Model to Investigate Transit Equity between Original and Relocated Areas in Urban Revitalization Projects Manoj K. Jha11 , Sabyasachee Mishra2, Diane Jones3, Coray Davis4 1 Center for Advanced Transportation and Infrastructure Engineering Research, Department of Civil Engineering, Morgan State University, 1700 East Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21251, United States 2 National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, United States 3 Department of Landscape Architecture, Morgan State University, 1700 East Cold Spring Lane Baltimore, MD 21251 4 Department of Engineering and Technology, Virginia State University, 1 Hayden Drive, Petersburg, VA 23806 submitted to the International Journal of Operations Research and Information Systems 1 Corresponding author.: Tel.: +1 443 885 1446, fax.: +1 443 885 8218 E‐mail address: [email protected] (Manoj K. Jha), [email protected] (Sabyasachee Mishra), [email protected] (Diane Jones), [email protected] (Coray Davis) Jha et al. 2 ABSTRACT In urban revitalization projects, transit-captive populations are generally displaced from the inner urban core and moved out to outer-urban areas. Since such areas may not have the same level of transit service and availability, the displaced individuals often find it difficult to commute to the urban core for work resulting in forced auto dependency. While there has been growing awareness about transit oriented development in recent years, this inequity in transit service in the old and new areas should be addressed within the Environmental Justice (EJ) framework. In this paper we discuss the EJ issues resulting from displacement of low-income populations from inner urban core to outer-urban areas. Using a case study example of an urban revitalization project from Baltimore, we develop an optimization model to minimize the total out-of-pocket cost of the transit riders in the relocated area, which should, in turn maximize the transit ridership by providing the desired commuting flexibility. The relocated area is divided in different socio- economic zones with varying preferences for work-based trips. A household survey was conducted to obtain data on people's willingness to pay for transit service with varying preferences for work-based trips. The results show that abundance of affordable transit facilities and stops based on the socioeconomic characteristics and population distribution may improve transit coverage and ridership. In future works, the transit routes and stops can be optimized based on the socioeconomic characteristics and population distribution of the relocated region. Key-words: urban revitalization, transit service coverage, transit ridership, optimization, environmental justice. INTRODUCTION In urban revitalization projects, transit-captive populations are often displaced from the inner urban core and moved out to lesser transit accessible outer-urban areas. The Environmental Justice (EJ) initiatives entail, among other things, transit equity among different sectors of population. Since the displaced individuals generally enjoy easy accessibility to transit systems (such as buses, subways, and metros) in the inner urban core, they often find it difficult to commute to work when displaced and moved out to outer-urban areas. These people are generally a transit-captive population being that’s being displaced, with some falling in the low- income category. This paper seeks to investigate the issue of transit inequity in the context of EJ initiatives by studying a recently completed urban revitalization project in Baltimore. Based on a closer scrutiny of the socio-economic characteristics of the displaced population in the relocated area, an optimization model is developed to minimize the total out-of-pocket cost of the potential transit riders in the relocated area, which should, in turn maximize the transit ridership by providing the desired commuting flexibility. Environmental Justice and Transportation Equity Every major investment or regulatory decision has social distributional effects (Miller 2005). Equity in transportation means the equal opportunity for each person to participate in social activities by varied travel modes (Ahmed et al. 2007). Costs are typically paid by those that benefit and transportation benefits are not denied to certain demographic populations. Whether Jha et al. 3 by public or private transportation different travelers should have the opportunity to have accessibility for personal purposes. Transportation equity can also be furthered divided into two broad categories: (1) horizontal where the concern relies on the distributive impacts between individuals and groups in need and (2) vertical where the concern is focused between individuals and groups that differ in income and social class. There is no single way to evaluate transportation equity. Instead evaluation depends largely on socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of an area and how they are measured. Table 1 characterizes the evaluation methods (Litman 2005). TABLE 1 Equity Variables in Transportation Equity Type Categories Impacts Measurement Units Horizontal Demographics Price or fare structure Per capita Vertical Income Tax burdens Per vehicle mile or kilometer Geographic location Transportation service quality Per vehicle mile or kilometer Ability External costs (risk, EJ issues) Per trip Mode Economic opportunity Per peak period trip Vehicle Type Industry Employment Per dollar paid in fare or tax Industry Trip type All of the factors listed above can affect a transportation equity analysis. However, with each evaluation, tradeoffs are achieved between objectives. This is apparent for transit planners as they must allocate resources between special needs people, bus services for disadvantaged as well as commuter services where roadway level of service and traffic problems can have an impact on timing. In urban transportation planning, little has been done to include objectives pertaining to social justice, driving the debate that transportation planners typically equate quantitative data to dollar figures. Most transportation related expenses constitute a significant portion of household income and, mostly a large portion of the incomes of low-income households (Deka 2004). Much of what has been done focuses on transportation research for physical infrastructures such as bridges, roads, and operations where testing facilities and research centers spend vast amounts of money on an annual basis (Falit-Baiamonte 2000) while most of the planning has focused on benefits to modes such as cars and rapid transit systems (Zhicai et al. 2008) due to higher speed and longer distance links that save time, but do little to include or offer benefits to the poor. The results of many projects should be evaluated to measure the distributive effects of equity. These measures can simply consider whether effects would or would not result from the transportation system change. Although it is important to raise concerns for all environmental justice issues, the issues that are relevant in transportation planning are health and human safety that focuses on air, water, and noise quality, hazardous cargo, economic development that focuses on land prices, property values, business development/redevelopment, and societal impacts (Forkenbrock and Sheeley 2004). Since its inception, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) Jha et al. 4 and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) have worked with state and local agencies to identify tasks and practices that make environmental justice a part of the transportation planning process. According to Hartell (2006), three main issues in conducting an EJ assessment such as defining a study area, defining the reference area, and determining the threshold are necessary. The way in which these issues are defined can affect how EJ assessments are conducted from region to region (Hartell 2006). Historically, low-income communities have been targets of displacements in transportation planning and urban revitalization projects (Coray Davis and Jha 2011) (C. Davis and Jha 2009) (Jones, Irizarry, and Jha 2008)(Jones and Jha 2010). The case of building and expanding highways in low-income areas has been evident since 1959 (FHWA 2000), when a 10-mile expressway was to be built in Durham, North Carolina. The expressway would connect Interstate 85 with Interstate 40 in Durham County serving a severely congested area of Durham, as it would pass through a mixture of industrial, railroad, and older residential land-uses. In 1970, half of the expressway was built and the remaining portion was to be constructed, but required right-of-way acquisition for it to run through a small African-American neighborhood known as Crest Street. The Crest Street community existed for over 100 years and was considered to be a low-income area and later expanded into a semi-urban neighborhood. The project called for relocating residents from the neighborhood to new areas in other parts of Durham. Tensions began to escalate over this debate, but the highway was eventually built and crossed directly through the neighborhood, significantly proving inequitable. Other notable EJ analysis has been reported by Chakraborty (2006) where an index was developed to evaluate proposed transportation improvement projects in Volusia County, Florida (Chakraborty 2006). The focus of Chakraborty’s study was to primarily minimizing high and adverse health and human environmental effects